ORLANDO, Fla. – In three matches over the Spring Break Holiday against a pair of regionally ranked teams, Millsaps fell to No. 20 Christopher Newport and No. 16 Carthage College with a win sandwiched in between against Hamilton College.
CNU, ranked 20th in the country and 11th in the region, cruised to a 9-0 win over the Majors on Friday, March 15 in Atlanta, Ga., winning all three doubles points with ease and sweeping all six singles matches to improve to 6-1 on the season.
The Millsaps duo of Wes Hill and Murphey Parker gave CNU their best run, getting edged in doubles play, 8-5, by the pair of Dusty Nelson and Lorenzo Sison. In singles play, Parker fell 6-3, 6-3 to Eddie Glidewell, while Hill fell at the No. 4 spot 6-4, 6-3 to Sison.
The Majors bounced back with an 8-1 win over Hamilton (1-1) just three days later, winning 2 of 3 doubles points to go up 2-1 before holding off the Continentals in singles action in six, hard-fought matches.
Campbell Hughes, Tim Shoptaugh and Trevor Harris at No.'s 2, 3 and 6 singles toughed out some wins to give the Majors their sixth win of the year. Hughes won 7-5, 6-2, over Jared Friedberg, Shoptaugh won 7-5, 7-6 over Jared Solomon and Harris defeated Gross, 6-3, 6-3.
In the final day of the trip to Orlando, newly 15th-ranked Millsaps in the Atlantic South Region (first time in 10+ years) fell just short of back-to-back wins to jump back to the .500 mark, falling 6-3 to 16th-ranked Carthage College who improved to 6-5 on the year.
Millsaps dropped two close matches at No's 1 and 2 doubles, both by 8-5 scores, before salvaging a point from Parker/Hill at the No. 3 spot who won handily, 8-0.
Carthage won at No's 1-4 in singles play to stretch the lead, while Hill (6-0, 0-6, 7-5) and Harris (6-3, 6-0) scored the Majors' only points at No's 5 and 6.
The Majors will be back in action on Thursday, March 27, at Mississippi College in a make-up game from an earlier rain-out. From there, the Millsaps men and women will play at home on Saturday, March 29, at 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. against the University of Mobile and the University of Texas-Dallas.
At noon on Saturday, Millsaps head coach Scott Pennington along with distinguished faculty will dedicate the courts in honor of Coach Montgomery.
